"What an
amazing musician Watkins is, this unfailingly dependable and musical pianist
who seems to be everywhere. If he caught a cold most of Britain’s summer
festival season would collapse." - The Telegraph

Huw
Watkins was born in Wales in 1976. He studied piano with Peter Lawson at
Chetham’s School of Music and composition with Robin Holloway, Alexander Goehr
and Julian Anderson at Cambridge and the Royal College of Music. In 2001 he was
awarded the Constant and Kit Lambert Junior Fellowship at the Royal College of
Music, where he now teaches composition.

As
a pianist, Huw Watkins is in great demand with orchestras and festivals
including the London Sinfonietta, Britten Sinfonia, the BBC orchestras and
Aldeburgh and Cheltenham Festivals. Huw has also developed a strong
relationship with the Orchestra of the Swan where he is ‘Composer in the House’
and with whom he has performed regularly over the years. Strongly committed to
the performance of new music, Huw has given premieres of works by Alexander
Goehr, Peter Maxwell Davies, Michael Zev Gordon and Mark-Anthony Turnage. He recently presented a programme of Hans Werner
Henze’s piano works at the BBC’s Total Immersion day at the Barbican.

A
favourite partner for chamber collaborations, Huw Watkins performs regularly
with his brother Paul Watkins, as well as Alina Ibragimova, James Gilchrist,
Daniel Hope, Nicholas Daniel, Sebastian Manz, Mark Padmore, Carolyn Sampson,
and Alexandra Wood. Recently Huw has featured as both Composer in Residence and
pianist at festivals including Presteigne and Lars Vogt’s ‘Spannungen’ Festival
in Heimbach, Germany.

Huw
Watkins is one of Britain’s foremost composers. His music has been performed throughout Europe and
North America".

Huw’s
works have been performed and commissioned by the Nash Ensemble, Birmingham
Contemporary Music Group, Belcea Quartet, Elias Quartet, BBC National Orchestra
of Wales, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati
Chamber Orchestra. Highlights include his acclaimed Violin Concerto premiered at the BBC Proms by Alina Ibragimova and
the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner, Piano Concerto
premiered by BBC NOW,London Concerto premiered to mark the London Symphony Orchestra’s
centenary,Double Concertopremiered at the BBC Proms with BBC
NOW conducted by Jac van Steen and In My Craft or Sullen
Art
for tenor and string quartet premiered at the Wigmore Hall by Mark Padmore and
the Petersen Quartet.

Huw Watkins is
regularly featured on BBC Radio 3, both as a performer and as a composer. His
recordings include a disc of Mendelssohn’s cello and piano
works with his brother Paul Watkins (Chandos), British sonatas for cello and
piano with Paul Watkins (Nimbus), Alexander Goehr’s piano cycleSymmetry
Disorders Reach (Wergo), and Thomas Adès’ song cycle The
Lover in Winter with the countertenor Robin Blaze (EMI Classics). Most
recently, NMC Records have released a disc dedicated to Huw Watkins’ work
entitledIn
my craft of sullen art(NMC). The disc showcases Huw’s ‘outstanding pianism’ (Andrew
Clements, The Guardian) and reveals him as ‘one of the most rounded
composer-musicians in the UK’ (Andrew Clark, Financial Times).